Phlox, Frogs and Snow!

Today is the day before we take our leave of E.C. Manning Provincial Park. In the morning we were being pelted by rain, which was much warmer than the light and sparse flurries of snow we had received the night before”… Snow!!! In June! Definitely enjoying the variety of weather here in British Columbia that we have experienced so far, everything from heavy rain, to sunshine, and now even snow.

Mountain Phlox Flower found at our sub-alpine site.

We drove out to our first site at Bonnevier Trail after breakfast, we were being drizzled on almost continuously over the past few days and so our site had transformed, adopting the bright greens of newly growing grasses, trees and shrubbery. As we were walking towards our site we spotted an amazing little green frog, which we quickly identified as the Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla). The Pacific Tree Frog is the frog that actually provided Hollywood’s “Ribbit” sound, and is the only frog that makes the traditional ribbit noise we regularly associate with frogs. This particular frog lives on the West coast of North America, specifically in dense vegetation close to water. Our Bonnevier site has exactly what the frog needed, with dense shrubbery, thick grasses, fallen logs, and a fast-flowing creek several meters away. We were able to get some fantastic pictures of the little guy and we thoroughly enjoyed the mini-ecology lesson we were all able to get.

After the take down and storage of the collected insects from Bonnevier, we then drove to our sub-alpine sampling location, Dry Ridge Trail. We snapped a few pictures, because the mountains were enveloped in clouds and it looked very much like the world stopped just past the trees, and hiked up to our site. It was still a breathtaking view from our site; you could see all the mountains and the tiny Manning Resort at the base of the mountain ridge we were on. This particular site was littered with a beautiful tiny purple-pink flower known as the Mountain Phlox, which stays low to the ground and is scattered all along the rocky treeless slopes of the mountain. This Phlox species, which is only in bloom from May to August, is a major attractor for pollinating insects, (the ones we were hoping to entice with our pan traps!).

After the takedown of Site 2, we drove down to Lightning Lake, to do some basic outreach. We gave tours of the bus, answered questions about what we do and how we do it, and taught a variety of children how to use a sweep net. Soon we will have a whole generation of little bug catchers! Later, we went and attended an insect presentation, and provided one of our own, at the Amphitheatre they have in the campground. It was an amazing turnout and we were able to teach people about our work, as well as learn about a few cool bugs ourselves. We wrapped up the day with a night sheet that unfortunately – because it was snowing and windy – did not manage to catch the normal variety of bugs.

Hopefully the weather in our next parks will be a little more cooperative!

Aquatic Sampling at the Beaver Pond

Aquatic Sampling at the Beaver Pond

E. C. Manning Provincial Park is a unique and beautiful park located in the Cascade Mountains of southwestern British Columbia. Established in 1941, the park consists of over 65,000 hectares of rugged forest-clad mountains, deep valleys, subalpine meadows, sun dappled lakes, and rushing white water. Every habitat within this park is home to different and seasonally variable insect fauna, providing a rich menu of natural novelties from which we can collect subjects for DNA barcoding.

A good portion of today was spent aquatic sampling at Beaver Pond, approximately 1 km from Manning Park Lodge. Sweeping through aquatic vegetation and bottom debris can yield hundreds of insects and other arthropods that might otherwise be overlooked, including larvae of dragonflies and damselflies (Order Odonata), mayflies (Order Ephemeroptera), caddisflies (Order Trichoptera) and non-insect arthropods like scuds or side-swimmers (Order Amphipoda) and crayfish (Order Decapoda).

Nets for collecting aquatic samples are stouter and shallower than aerial nets, and most aquatic sampling is done using a heavy and expensive “D net.” Collecting and observing aquatic insects and other non-insects arthropods is easiest if samples (taken with a net) are dumped into a white pan; individuals can be removed using a pair of forceps.

The monsters of the aquatic insect world, the dragonfly nymph, caught at Beaver Pond, 1km from Manning Park Lodge.

While sorting through the clutter of bottom debris dumped into our white pan, we discovered a dragonfly nymph. With luck, your sample can include some robust greenish or brownish dragonfly nymphs, torpedo-shaped if you have scooped up a darner nymph, perhaps broader and more sprawling if you have a skimmer nymph. Either way, dragonfly nymphs are hydraulic monstrosities quite unlike the aerial adults. If you disturb the nymph as it sits at the bottom of your pan of water you will see it fold its legs and shoot across the container as though by jet propulsion, blasting a clear path of debris with its jet exhaust. Even more interesting is the hydraulic-powered lower lip (labium) reminiscent of, but much more interesting than, the tongue of a frog or chameleon, which can shot forward to swipe an item of prey.

In the end, we ended up with some amazing and wonderful aquatic invertebrates, everything from amphipods to portable-case making caddisfly larvae, to the robust monstrosities of the aquatic insect world, the dragonfly nymph.